It’s official, the German luxury automobile maker Mercedes Benz has officially dropped out as New York Fashion Week’s title sponsor. Mercedes Benz has announced it will continue its efforts in supporting the fashion industry and therefore remain sponsor of Berlin’s and Sydney’s Fashion Week. The reasons behind the lost sponsorship are unconfirmed, but the absence of major design power houses such as DVF and Michael Kors in recent years may play a significant role in such matters. As a consequence there will be a small name change of the week long fashion production. After February 2015, the fashion spectacle will simply be referred to as New York Fashion Week.The traditional fashion festivities in New York won’t stop of course. CFDA and IMG (international media company and mastermind behind the international fashion spectacle) have agreed to move Fashion Week to Culture Shed downtown, but with projected construction work until 2017 another strategic move had to be executed in order secure New Yorks Fashion Week’s survival. IMG has voiced its plans to acquire long-term competitor MADE Fashion Week, which provides designers a more affordable platform to expose their creations to the New York Market. To let the numbers talk real quick: MBFW charges designers anything from $75,000 to $500,000, whereas MADE Fashion Week supplies the venue, hair, make-up, lighting and seating for free.
It seems as the bad news just keep adding up for IMG, it has been confirmed that American Express has pulled out as a sponsor as well. The recent drastic changes of New York Fashion Week’s future started with a court ruling forcing the iconic fashion event to vacate Lincoln Center. This unfortunate outcome was the result of a law suit in 2013 against the City Parks Department for “abusing” Damrosch Park which is directly connected to Lincoln Center. It is still uncertain where the Spring/Summer Fashion Week will take place at in September, but fashionistas are expressing concerns in regards of Fashion Week losing its iconic flair without Mercedes Benz and Lincoln Center being part of the equation.
What do you guys think? I would like to know your thoughts so please comment below.
XOXO,
Dynamically Branded
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